Why Would I Want to Join?

The Democratic Committee is the group of people who make many of the decisions about who runs for office in Rensselaer County. We also have a vision for it to be an effective tool for making our whole democracy work better. You can join because you want to have a bigger say in who gets elected around here, but we hope you will also be engaged in making sure that the people we elect will be supported in being as effective as possible.

How do I join?

If you are interested in joining the Democratic Committee this year, you have to act fast, but it is definitely still possible. In order to join, you have to gather designating petitions from 5% of the Democrats in your district. In most cases, the minimum is around 15 signatures. This typically means a couple evenings of going out to talk to your neighbors.

Petitions must be filed at the board of elections by July 10th, and there are some rules about how they have to be formatted. Click here for details on petitions. Feel free to contact us, and we are happy to help. The board of elections may also be able to help you directly.

Since 2 people are allowed to be on the committee from each Election District, there will only be a contested election if more than 2 people are nominated. In such cases, the election will be on September 9th, 2014, during the local primaries. You are free (and encouraged) to run your own campaign, by talking to your neighbors, but we often help candidates who we feel would make good additions to the committee, so feel free to contact us about that too.